Creativity belongs to everyone.

Art is not something reserved for people with the right credentials, institutions, training, or vocabulary. Milwaukee's creative life is made by professionals and beginners, institutions and independents, lifelong artists and people who have only just decided to begin.

Art changes the way we see.

A painting, performance, poem, song, object, meal, building, or unexpected conversation can interrupt the automatic. It can make us notice something we had stopped seeing.

A city's creative life should be visible.

Extraordinary work is happening every day in theaters, galleries, studios, bookstores, classrooms, basements, music venues, neighborhoods, restaurants, parks, and places that do not fit neatly into any category.

People should be able to find it.

Process matters.

Experimentation matters. Curiosity matters. Play matters. So do mistakes, questions, strange ideas, unfinished attempts, and the years it can take to develop a way of making something that is entirely your own.

Artists and audiences need one another.

ArtSceneMKE exists to help them find each other.

We are here to notice what Milwaukee is making, make more of it visible, and invite more people into the conversation.